Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers

The game is set one thousand years after the events of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, populated by four races.[7] During the Great War, the Yuke tribe was banished to their own world, after the crystal is destroyed by the kingdom's destructive machines called "crystal reactors". The new era for the imbalanced world revealed that each members of the race have the power of the crystals, calling themselves as "Crystal Bearers", a rare breed of powerful beings with magical abilities. Their use of arcane arts defy against the law of the kingdom. In March 2008, an official advertising article about Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates noted that the Nintendo DS installment is set before Crystal Bearers.[8]

The main protagonist is Layle, a Clavat mercenary and one of the four eponymous bearers. His Selkie partner, Keiss, becomes a military colonel of the kingdom. Belle, a female Selkie, helping them solve the case. Amidatelion (also known as Goldenrod), a female Yuke summoner whose goal is to revive the race and restore the principle. Althea Sol Alfiraria, an orphaned princess of the Lilty Kingdom. Cid, Layle's former engineer and tinker. The main villain is Jegran, the kingdom's high commander. After the accident caused the power of the crystal reactor to replace his arm, he uses it to turn anyone into red crystal statues and disrupt the principle. Jegran plans to conquer the world, using the god complex. Other characters include Vaigali, the leader of Selkies, selling information for highest bidders and Blaze, Layle's pyrokinetic ex-partner.

Layle drives the cruise ship to safety near the capital, when one of the "Crystal Idol" pieces absorbed the energy from the ship.[9] Layle discovers Amidatelion using the idol to revive parts for the crystal in the ancient ruins. As he continues to investigate the case, he is framed by Jegran. Layle and Amidatelion escape through the portal. While planning to protect the crystal, Layle examines the battleship, learning that Jegran killed Althea's father. Layle frees all prisoners and uses the Idol to recover another part for the crystal, while Jegran kills Vaigali and Amidatelion. Before Layle arrives to the palace, Jegran awakens his power to disable all reactors. However, Layle defeats Jegran, while Althea and the Yuke tribe protect the Lilty crystal. With the world restored, Althea invites the tribe to unite the race.

When the Nintendo Wii was first showcased, Square Enix developed Akitoshi Kawazu’s first thought was that he wanted to make a single player version of ‘’Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles’’.[10] As a result, Crystal Bearers was designed to be a "single-player experience", as opposed to the GameCube installment which focused on cooperative play.[11] Early concepts ranged from allowing players to fish, to using the Wiimote to move objects around in space.[10] Kawazu also wanted to make a game that gave players a sense of the passage of time, which he called a “real time” Final Fantasy.[10] This idea led to the thought about how in the real world, swinging a sword takes time, as opposed to the traditional button pushing that is instantaneous and more artificial.[10] Kawazu also wanted to minimize the number of menus, since the Wii was usually in a family room in peoples houses and distracted from the fun.[12] Kawazu stated that the game should have the feeling of being at a theme park, with gamers not distracted and wholly focused on the experience.[12] Kawazu describes the games genre as “Attraction Adventure”, with players going from different entertainment experiences freely.[12] There was also a minimum amount of game terminology compared to most Final Fantasy games to help casual players feel welcome.[12]

The graphical style of the game was intended to be more “mature” to go with its “solo hero” concept.[11] Toshiyuki Itahana stated he wants a more "world weary" protagonist, and wanted him to seem rugged, which influenced the hair design of the character.[13] The game is intended to feature a more "mature" design to help bolster the heroic structure of the story.[11] Kawazu notes that the game should be enjoyable for even people just watching the game being played, and included shot changes every few seconds, a news ticker-type information feed on the bottom.[12] He also noted that the protagonist had to look attractive in case players moms saw them playing the game.[12] One of the design changes that were initially opposed by the design team was the changing of character heights from “three heads high” to six.[12] Game artist Itahana wanted to make "an exhilarating tale of this great hero set against sweeping blue skies", which influenced many decisions in game design and story.[13]

To make sure the game was pleasing to Japanese audiences, an introductory sequence that taught players the controls was included.[14] Music was intended to be different from traditional ‘’Final Fantasy’’, and was designed to be more “popular” and “modern”, and included country and western music.[14] Originally the game development team did not intend to use any of the unique features of the Nintendo Wii, but by the end they changed their minds.[14] The team also realized that the Wii had become very popular with casual users, and retargeted the game at them.[14] Internet connectivity was not added due to the low percentage of Wii owners using the feature.[14] The team that developed “Crystal Bearers” was the same that developed the original Crystal Chronicles games except for the programmers, the head of which had previously worked on the ‘’Front Mission’’ series.[14] During on site play testing, players familiar with Final Fantasy but not action games were able to learn “smoothly”.[15] Indeed, Kawazu advises the design team near the end of development to not focus on “punishing” the player so much, as games traditionally do by having the protagonist die and restart.[15] The producer expressed his desire to for every player to see the games ending, whether they are skilled at the game or not.[15]

The game's existence was announced at E3 2005[16] and at E3 2006 a short pre-rendered teaser trailer was included within a Wii games compilation video. In May 2007 a new trailer including gameplay was released and a few interviews with the developers were given.[17][18] Since then, no game information was given. Crystal Bearers has had no presence at recent Square Enix events or the website (the Crystal Chronicles developer blog has not made mention of Crystal Bearers since June 6, 2007[19]) coupled with the developers of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King refusing to comment when asked about the status of The Crystal Bearers at the Game Developers Conference of February 2008, stating only that the public should "wait for a press release."[20] In November 2008, in response to a section in the next month's issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly stating that the game had been "quietly canceled" Square Enix released a statement confirming that the game had not been canceled and that they fully intend to release it, although no release date could be given.[21] A trailer for the game was packaged with the Wii version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time. It shows the game in a further state of development, and displays game characteristics such as combat, magic, puzzle solving and an overworld, as well as traditional elements of the Final Fantasy series, such as the Cactuar and Bahamut. At the end of March, an official teaser site opened up.[22] In Japan, a commercial for the game aired with the song We Weren't Born to Follow by Bon Jovi playing in the background.[23]